Safety grate cover for a swimming pool

ABSTRACT

A grate cover in combination with a swimming pool being installed in a recess in the top of a sump. The grate is formed of an upper and a lower section. The upper section exhibits four squares or four triangles therein, The upper section has a dome-shaped configuration and has four square or triangular shapes therein, depending on the geometric division therein, each shape has openings therein. The lower section has four trapezoid shapes therein. Each of the shapes of the upper section, whether square or triangular, has a concave surface curvature therein at a transition between the upper and the lower section. Each of the trapezoids of the lower section has two concave surfaces- curvatures therein. One curvature extends in a first direction from the upper section toward an outside edge of grate cover. The other second concave curvature extends in a direction which is normal to the first direction. This way, the forceful suction within the sump cannot obtain enough force to suction the skin of a human onto the grate cover to cause any injuries. The curvatures in the top of the grate cover will always induce a lateral flow under a human body no matter how much of the grate is covered by the body.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 13/317,013,filed on Oct. 7, 2011 and published as 20120144578, on Jun. 14, 2012.The contents of application Ser. No. 13/317,013 are hereby incorporatedby reference as if fully set forth herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Most all swimming pools have a drainage sump located mostly in the deepend bottom for draining the pool when necessary and also forparticipating in the circulation of the pool water which is circulatingthrough the filter system. Other pool systems are known as wading poolsor Jacuzzis.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The above mentioned pools have a sump in the lowest point of the pooland is of a pot-like configuration and has a grating installed over theopening of the sump to prevent any of the larger debris or children'stoys from entering into the sump and to prevent any human limbs orlarger areas of the human body to make contact with the considerablesuction force in the bottom of the sump to avoid any injuries. Theconsiderable suction in the bottom of the sump creates quite a forcefulsuction on the top of the grate that covers the sump. It has been knownthat many injuries have occurred to a human being suctioned onto thesump cover without being able to extricate him or herself without anyhelp. Most of the sump covers known in the art have , a flat surfacethereon and the covers have many interstices therein to catch anythingon the flat surface thereon while the water is suctioned into the sump.It has been found, in many instances, the force of the suction is ofsuch intensity so that a human body can be trapped on top of the coverand the body of the person cannot be removed unless emergency proceduresare undertaken.

Steps have been taken alleviate a person from being sucked onto thecover. The above identified application has almost solved the problem bymaking the cover in a dome-shaped configuration. This way, no flatsurfaces are presented to any part of the human body to therebyeliminate any chance of being sucked onto the surface of the gratecover.

Other constructions have taken a different approach to this problem byhaving a sensor installed in the water suction line that would sense anyincrease in the force of the suction and after a short delay would cutoff the suction. However, this approach has the disadvantage that by thetime the increase in suction is being sensed, the person is alreadypulled down by the force of the suction and still could obtain a seriousinjury.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As mentioned above, this invention is a Continuation-In-Part of a priorapplication. The prior application has a dome-shaped grate covercovering the sump. Since this dome-shaped grate cover is almostfool-proof with regard to any injuries, the present inventive concept isa further improvement over the prior grate cover. The present inventionstill has a dome-shaped cover but is divided into an upper section and alower section. The upper section has four squares in one type ofgeometric division or four triangles in another type of geometricdivision and each of the squares or triangles has square-shapedinterstices or openings and exhibits a surface concave curve at thetransition to the lower section. The lower section has four trapezoids,that is, this shape has two parallel sides and two non-parallel sides,and each of the trapezoids has a first surface concave curve extendingin a direction toward the outside of the cover and furthermore has asecond concave curve in a direction which is normal to the direction ofthe first concave curve. This arrangement assures that there is never achance of any part of the human body being suctioned onto the gratecover because of the above curvatures there is always a lateral flow ofsuctioned water into the sump and under a person being in close contactwith the cover.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top view of the inventive grate cover;

FIG. 2 is also a top view of the grate cover but showing a differentgeometric division of the upper section;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of the grate cover taken along the lineB-B of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of the grate cover taken along the lineC-C of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a detailed view of the transition between a first square ortriangle and a second trapezoid as shown by circle D;

FIG. 6 shows a fastening element at a middle line of the cover as shownby the circle A;

FIG. 7 shows a fastening element at a corner of the cover as shown bythe circle F;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a sump in the bottom of the pool;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the various interstices of the poolcover;

FIG. 10 is across section through a wall of the interstices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a top view of the grate cover having a domed section. Thebasic cover is in a square configuration and as seen from the center topthere are four downwardly sloping squares 1 a, 1 b, 1 c and 1 d. Thereis a transitional area between the upper section and a lower section 2.The transitional area is shown by the circle D and FIG. 4. The lowersection 2 again is divided into four trapezoids 2 a, 2 b, 2 c and 2 d. Atrapezoid has two parallel sides and two non-parallel sides. As can beseen from FIG. 1, the upper section 1 has a multiple of interstices oropenings of a square configuration and the second section 2 has oblongor rectangular interstices or openings. The square interstices are heldto a minimum of between 8.00 mm and 11.00 mm. This assures that not evena finger of a human hand can be sucked into the sump by way of aforceful suction. The top of the dome-shaped section 1 has a flatlocation 3 thereon to receive an ID tag which will indicate the exactspecification of the grate cover.

FIG. 2 is another top view of the grate having a dome-shaped section.Like, as it is shown in FIG. 1, the basic cover is in a squareconfiguration and as seen from the top, there are four downwardlysloping triangles 1 e, 1 f, 1 g and 1 h. The remainder of FIG. 2 is thesame as was explained in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of the grate cover. The view is takenalong line B-B of FIG. 1. This view clearly shows the dome-shaped topsection 1 as it tapers downwardly toward the lower section 2. At thetransition between the upper section 1 and the lower section 2 there isslight surface concave curve 4 which blends into the lower section 2.The lower section shows a surface concave curve 5 as it curvesdownwardly toward the outside edge of the cover.

FIG. 4 is another cross sectional of the grate cover. This view is takenalong the line C-C of FIG. 1. This view shows a concave surface curve 5a which is parallel to the concave curve 5 that curves downwardly towardthe edge 17 of the grate cover.

FIG. 5 is a top view of an area depicted in FIG. 1 by the circle D. ThisFig. shows the square interstices 6 of the upper section 1 and theoblong or rectangular openings or interstices 7 of the lower section 2.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate how the grate cover is fastened to the sumpshown in FIG. 8. FIG. 6 shows a fastening element 10 of the grate coverlower section 2 that is located at about the middle line of the gratecover lower section 2 and has an opening 11 therein which is used topass a fastener there through. In FIG. 7 there is shown a corner 8 ofthe grate cover having an opening 9 therein which is used to pass afastener there through into a recess of the sump.

FIG. 8 illustrates a typical sump 12 which is normally of a squareconfiguration although other shapes such as circular or rectangular mayalso be used. However, the square shape has proven to be mostbeneficial. The sump 12 has a suction outlet 13 in the bottom. The sump12 has a recess 14 around its upper periphery which is used to insertthe grate cover therein to be flush with the bottom of the pool orJacuzzi.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show a detailed construction of the walls of theinterstices or openings in the grate cover. The walls are shown at 15and the upper surface of the walls have a reduced profile thereon toform ribs 16. This reduced profile 16 is instrumental in furtherminimizing the contact that can be had with the skin of a human whenconing in contact with the grate cover.

It can now be seen that the pool grate cover is quite superior inperformance when compared with the covers known in use including theco-pending application identified above. Experiments and tests haveshown that the skin of a human cannot be attracted to the surface of thecover because the contact area is too small and the various curvatureson the top do not allow any areas of the body and the limbs to beattracted to the surface of the grate cover. The various concavecurvatures of the top of the cover will always create lateral flowsthrough the interstices and under any area of the human body. Thesuction force from inside of the sump cannot find enough contact areasto be effective to cause injuries.

This inventive grate cover should be installed in condo polls, apartmentcomplexes, olympic size pools or even pools used in a home environment.The home environment use includes wading pools and the use of a Jacuzzi.

What I claim is:
 1. A pool grate cover, said grate cover having an outer cover surface with multiple openings, and comprising an upper section, a transition area, and a lower section; said upper section having four upper section sides, said upper section sides forming a dome-shaped configuration; said transition area is situated between said upper section and said lower section, wherein said transition area exhibits a surface concave curve with respect to said outer cover surface, said lower section having four sides, wherein each of said lower section sides is trapezoidal in shape; and wherein each of said lower section sides has a first lower section surface concave curvature with respect to said outer cover surface and extending in a direction toward an outside edge of said grate cover.
 2. The pool grate cover of claim 1, wherein said multiple openings include openings in said upper section that are of a square configuration.
 3. The pool grate cover of claim 1 including a flat area on top of said upper section for a reception of information with regard to a specification of said pool grate cover.
 4. The pool grate cover of claim 1, wherein said multiple openings include openings in said tower section that are of a rectangular configuration.
 5. The pool grate cover of claim 1, wherein said upper section sides and said lower section sides have reduction ribs thereon to minimize contact with skin of a human making contact with said grate cover.
 6. The pool grate cover of claim 1, wherein said multiple openings each have a surface dimension between 7 mm to 11 mm.
 7. The pool grate cover of claim 1, wherein said multiple openings include openings in said upper section that are of a square configuration, and openings in said lower section that are of a rectangular configuration.
 8. The pool grate cover of claim 1, wherein said each of said lower section sides has a second concave curve with respect to said outer cover surface, wherein said second concave curve is in a direct on which is parallel to the direction of said first lower section surface concave curvature.
 9. The pool grate cover of claim 1 further comprising: a plurality of fastening elements; wherein each of said fastening element defines an opening; and wherein each said opening is designed for passing a fastener through and into a recess of said sump.
 10. A method of installing the pool grate cover of claim 9 in said recess of said sump comprising the following steps: inserting said pool grate cover into said recess of said sump; wherein said outer cover surface of said pool grate cover faces away from said sump; and fastening said pool grate cover to said sump using said fasteners.
 11. A pool grate cover comprising: an upper section, a middle section, and a lower section; wherein said middle section is between said upper section and said lower section; wherein said upper section defines an upper section surface; wherein said upper section surface defines an upper section perimeter; wherein said upper section perimeter is generally square; wherein said upper section surface defines a plurality of openings; wherein said lower section defines lower section surfaces; wherein each one of said lower section surfaces is delineated by four straight edges; wherein two of said four straight edges are parallel; wherein each one of said lower section surfaces is concave; wherein said lower section surfaces define a plurality of openings; wherein said middle section defines a middle section surface; wherein said middle section surface forms a ring between said upper section and said lower section; wherein said middle section surface is concave; wherein said middle section surface defines a plurality of openings; and wherein said pool grate cover is designed for installation in a sump.
 12. A pool grate cover in combination with a sump; said grate cover having an outer cover surface with multiple openings, and comprising an upper section, a transition area, and a lower section; said upper section having four upper section sides, said upper section sides forming a dome-shaped configuration; said transition area is situated between said upper section and said lower section, wherein said transition area exhibits a surface concave curve with respect to said outer cover surface; said lower section having four sides, wherein each of said lower section sides is trapezoidal in shape; and wherein each of said lower section sides has a first lower section surface concave curvature with respect to said outer cover surface and extending in a direction toward an outside edge of said grate cover. 